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International
Womens Day


Report from 8 March celebration in Los Angeles


Quetta, Pakistan: Afghan women celebrate International Womens Day

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Report from 8 March celebration in Los Angeles

17
March 2009. A World to Win News Service.The following was based on a report from
the 8 March Womens Organisation, Iran - Afghanistan (www.8mars.com) and other
sources. It also includes material from Revolution, voice of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, USA (revcom.us).

A
celebration of International Womens Day in Los Angeles drew a highly diverse
crowd of about 300 people. The enthusiastic march started from a busy square
and went through different areas of the city, including the Westwood
neighbourhood where many Iranians live. The chanting, sign-carrying
multinational demonstrators included older Iranian refugees, teenage
Iranian-American women, college students, feminists of
various nationalities, garment workers, Aztec (Native American) dancers and
immigrants from other countries.

The
event was coordinated by The Committee of U.S. Women and the 8 March Womens
Organisation. The central slogan was No to the fundamentalist anti-women
Islamic regime of Iran! And no to U.S. imperialism.
Among slogans were Women in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq need no imperialists
for their liberation and Long live international solidarity.

This
demonstration was in support of the International Womens Day march in Brussels
organized by Karzar (Womens Campaign for the Abolition of all Misogynist and
Gender-Based Legislation and Islamic Punitive Laws against Women in Iran).

The
podium was set up on a big lorry decorated with banners and the central slogan
of the march.

The
first speaker was the well-known antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed
fighting with the U.S. Army in Iraq. Wearing a Karzar t-shirt, she spoke of the
solidarity of International Womens Day and declared her support for the march
and the struggle of Iranian women. Carol Downer, the co-founder of the Feminist
Womens Health Center, wrote a letter explaining why she supports the Iranian
women in this struggle and why other feminists should too. Eve Ensler, the
playwright and performer who wrote The
Vagina Monologues, sent a solidarity statement to the women of
Iran. Poet Suheir Hammad, a poet who appeared on Def Poetry Jam on Broadway
and is one of the first Palestinians on Broadway, sent a poem to be read at the
rally. Internationally-known poet Sonia Sanchez sent a recorded message to be
played from the stage. Other speakers included a student member of the
International Womens Day Coalition in Los Angeles, Jodie Evans, who co-founded
Code Pink, Dolly Veale of the Revolutionary Communist Party, UCLA law professor
Frances Olsen, performance poet and KPFK radio host Jerry Quickley, and folk
singer Dennis Davis.

Mary
Lou Greenberg of the Revolutionary Communist Party (USA) sent a solidarity
message to the Brussels demonstration taking part that same day, saying, By
spitting in the face of both oppressive alternatives, you are showing that it
is possible for women  and men,  to rely on themselves and forge another
way.

This
demonstration was a product of internationalist work by Iranian women of the 8
March Womens Organisation and activists and supportive women. They distributed
85,000 leaflets on university campuses, in proletarian neighbourhoods like
Watts. They spoke in secondary school classrooms, with progressive journalists
and on radio broadcasts and elsewhere, sharing stories of their experience of
imprisonment and resistance. Their revolutionary defiance was a breath of fresh
air and a bold challenge that many people answered consciously.

A
speaker with the March 8 Womens Organization said, Even though the forms of
womens oppression may be different in different countries, the reality of
womens oppression is the same whether it is the enforced wearing of the hijab
in Islamic countries or having no reproductive rights in imperialist countries.
Thats why Im here today with you  in solidarity as Iranian and Afghani women
struggling against anti-women Islamic fundamentalism and U.S. imperialism. The
solidarity of Iranian and Afghani women in our struggle against the patriarchal
system of Islamic fundamentalist regimes and against U.S. imperialism is strengthened
by having American women standing shoulder to shoulder with us.... Today we are
here to bring the voices of Iranian women to all of you to announce that we are
for a world independent of reactionary regimes, including the patriarchal
government of the United States. We are here to say that Iranian women believe
that another world is possible. I am here today to say that we are not afraid
of the power of U.S. imperialism  we believe in and need the power of the
people all over the world.

- end item-

Quetta,
Pakistan: Afghan women celebrate International Womens Day

17
March 2008. A World to Win News Service. On the occasion of
International Womens Day, the 8 March Womens Detachment of Afghanistan held a
meeting in Quetta, a city in northern Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, to
commemorate the founding of this day of protest a century ago and condemn the
worsening violence against women in Afghanistan. The mass meeting was held with
the active cooperation of another Afghan group, the Revolutionary Youth
Movement. More than 800 people filled the hall and another 200 could not get in
because there was no more room.

Most
of the participants were women and girls, most of whom were students. Among the
male participants, the majority were students as well. The young women speakers
from the two organisations made presentations about the deteriorating situation
for women in Afghanistan under the U.S.-led occupation.

Afghanistan
has become one of the worst places in the world in terms of violence against
women. In addition to suffering from the general atmosphere of insecurity, they
have been raped and kidnapped by the armed forces. They are the victims or
threatened victims of rape in the prisons and womens shelters. They face death
by stoning for non-Islamic behaviour. They also suffer violence in their home
and from their family, such as beating and murder by their husbands and
so-called honour killings at the hands of male family members. Not only has the
occupation of the country by the U.S. and its allies in the name of liberating
women not improved the situation; in many aspects, in particular regarding the
violent oppression of women, things have gotten worse. Nothing speaks more
eloquently to this reality than the fact that the number of cases of women
committing suicide by burning themselves to death has skyrocketed over the last
five years.

The
programme also included instrumental music, songs, paintings and poems
denouncing the violence against women by the occupiers, the Afghanistan armed
forces and womens families. Several teenage girls and boys put on a
performance. The programme was well received by the participants.

The
afternoon-long meeting, held on 9 March, received solidarity and support
messages from nearly all the local schools and educational institutions on the
occasion of International Womens Day.

The
8 March Womens Detachment has celebrated IWD by holding mass meetings in
Quetta every year since 1998 under different circumstances. This year was one
of the best received by the poor masses of the neighbourhoods in Quetta where
tens of thousands of Afghanis live.

(The
8 March Womens Detachment blog: www.nabardezan.persianblog.ir)

- end item-

Corrections:

In
our article on the 8 March International Womens Day protests in Brussels last
week, we incorrectly referred to HOPI as an Iranian antiwar group. It is not.
(www.hopi.org) Also, we inadvertently omitted mention of a solidarity message
from the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist).

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The AWTWNS packet for the week of 17 March 2008 contains two articles. They may be reproduced or used in any way, in whole or in part, as long as they are credited.